Josyula 1

Progressive Writers’ Movement and Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case:

Ananth Josyula
December 11, 2022
HIST 3000W
 Josyula 2

Britain took control of the Indian subcontinent from the East India Company when it

passed the Government of India Act 1858. 1 In the 1930s, after 75 years of British rule over the

Subcontinent, tensions between the British and the leading political party advocating for

independence, the Congress, reached fever pitch. Although some supported the non-cooperation

movement led by Mohandas Gandhi, Motilal Nehru, and Chittaranjan Dash, others such as

Chandrashekhar Tiwari, Bhagat Singh and Ras Bihari Bose advocated violent means such as

revolution. This paper focuses on a third group: those who chose the path of the pen.

Garnering popularity in India through the enormous success of Angare (translated as

Embers) — a collection of nine short stories and a one-act play in Urdu — four young Muslims

from elite family backgrounds, Ahmed Ali, Sajjad Zaheer, Rashid Jehan and Mahmuduz Zafar,

formed the Progressive Writers' Movement (PWM) in 1936 in Calcutta. Its members and

activists used themes of revolt and dissent against landlords, feudal lords, exploitative rulers and

the British to build support against new struggles like capitalism, fascism, exploitation, and

discrimination.2 The PWM writers synthesized their progressive messages with a rich dose of

socialism.

Upon completion of the British transfer of power with the Partition of India in 1947,

Pakistan held a large battle-hardened military disproportionate to its size. For additional territory,

it waged and lost a war with India over the state of Jammu and Kashmir. This loss initiated a

process that led to what Charles Glaser terms as a greedy state — a state that is willing to expand

for reasons other than security (i.e. greed).3 It began a process of building itself into an Islamic

State focused on its military with little tolerance for dissent. Meanwhile, across the border under

1
“Government of the Raj 1858-1914,” UK Parliament, accessed December 5, 2022.
2
Ali Ahmed and N.M. Rashed, “The Progressive Writers’ Movement in its Historical Perspective,” Journal of South
Asian Literature 13, no. 1/4 (1977): 91–97.
3
Charles L. Glaser, “The Security Dilemma Revisited,” World Politics 50, no. 1 (1997): 171-20.
 Josyula 3

the Congress party, India steered clear of military influence in politics. Instead, India set up large

state-funded universities, crafting the narrative on its emergence as a free country after centuries

of foreign rule. While these institutions contributed to vibrant student politics, they also helped

catalyze movements for social change. This paper examines how the PWM became part of

student-led movements for change within Indian state-funded universities. When these university

graduates matriculated into elite Government positions like state administrators and foreign

service officers, they played a key role in incorporating PWM-based sentiments into the

formulation of government policy.4

The PWM quickly became part of international movements challenging the mainstream

of the 1950s such as post-colonialism, anti-war movements, feminism, and civil rights.5 Invoking

ideas such as eradication of hunger, poverty, religion, and social and economic backwardness,

the PWM drew from the Russian October Revolution, and explored ideas of land reform and

redistribution of wealth, contextualizing a very India-specific message.6 This paper explores the

influence of global movements on PWM’s call to embrace progressivism.

Since its earliest days, the PWM used both arts and literature to help disseminate its

message advocating for poverty alleviation and land ownership to a wide audience. The PWM

organized literary festivals where locals performed themselves, using their own songs and

instruments.7 Since visual arts in the Subcontinent are traditionally rooted in religious depictions

and the Hindu tradition of song and dance, the PWM wanted to avoid such themes. So, it focused

on secular and Leftist literature in its efforts to gain universal acceptance. Over time, the literary

4
Bidyut Sarkar, P.N.Haksar: Our Times and The Man - Writings on the Occasion of his 75th Birthday (Delhi: Allied
Publishers, 1989), 44.
5
Rakhshanda Jalil, Liking Progress, Loving Change: A Literary History of the Progressive Writers' Movement in
Urdu (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014).
6
K. N. Panikkar, “Progressive Cultural Movement in India: A Critical Appraisal,” Social Scientist 39, no. 11/12
(2011): 14-25.
7
Talat Ahmed, “Literature and Politics in the Age of Nationalism: The Progressive Writers’ Movement in South
Asia, 1932-1956” (PhD diss., University of London, 2006).
 Josyula 4

tradition of enacting plays written by PWM stalwarts like Sardar Jafri, Kaifi Azmi, Mulk Raj

Anand, and Bhisham Sahni led to the formation of the Indian People's Theatre Association

(IPTA). Given India’s literacy rate of 12% in 1947, the IPTA focused on social change, using

theater, and street plays as its primary mechanisms.8 Ultimately, as the film industry developed in

the post-Partition melting pot of Bombay, many IPTA writers became skilled film script writers.

They could pick up themes that they had explored in their street plays and local theaters and

present them on the silver screen where the reach was in the millions. This paper highlights how

the PWM members' ability to write irreverently on Hindu religiosity for the IPTA, in a country

freshly divided across religious lines, helped them appeal to a socio-religio-economically diverse

population that wished to move on from the trauma of religious partition.9

Remarkably, just a few years earlier, the leading lights among PWM writers, notably,

Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Sajjad Zaheer, moved to Pakistan shortly after its formation, attempting to

establish an Islamic Socialist Movement. These writers started to build a mass movement in

favor of members of trade unions and Kisan (farmer) organizations, but their efforts died an early

death with the Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case. In March 1951, then Prime Minister of Pakistan,

Liaquat Ali Khan, alleged a military-led conspiracy “to create revolutionary condition (sic) in the

country by violent means and to subvert the loyality (sic) of Pakistan’s defence forces.” The

Government accused two army officers – Major General Akbar Khan and Brigadier Muhammad

Abdul Latif Khan – and two civilians - Faiz Ahmad Faiz, editor of Pakistan Times, and Sajjad

Zaheer, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Pakistan (CPP).10 Pakistan’s membership

in the anti-communist pacts, the South East Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO) and Central

8
“Literacy in India,” Census Organization of India, accessed December 5, 2022.
9
Aamir Aijaz, “Dusted after ‘Mass Awakening’: Downfall of Progressive Writers’ Movement in Kashmir,” Free
Press Kashmir, February 12, 2019.
10
Muhammad Hamza, “The Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case: Myth or Reality – An Analysis,” Pakistan Perspectives
11, no. 1 (2006).
 Josyula 5

Treaty Organization (CENTO), required it to nip in the bud any domestic development of

Marxist ideology in exchange for American support. Pakistan’s strategic location and open

dialogue with various power blocs placed it in a very critical position on the “security map of the

free world.”11 This paper relates the impact of this case and subsequent trial on Pakistan’s

militarization.

Having analyzed the Pakistani Government’s suppression of the PWM as a fall out of

geopolitics (capitalism) and land interests (feudalism), one must comprehend the consequences

of silencing these thinkers, their ideas of Islamic socialism, and Pakistani PWM by the feudal

elite and military. Specifically, what effect did the elimination of these writers from Pakistan have

on each side of the border? When the CPP was formally banned in 1954, it ended a unique

culture of dissent that the PWM called for, in Pakistan. In 1956, upon the request of India’s first

Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, prominent PWM writers were freed upon the condition that

they leave Pakistan. Many returned to India and rejoined other Indian PWM writers, focusing on

the reinforcement of India’s rich tradition of dissent and liberal thought. Over time, these writers

re-entered the Indian film industry that thrived on scripts questioning the social order and the

Hindu religion while using Indic-drama techniques. They taught at state-funded universities and

art institutions that received generous Government funding and were also permitted to explore

thoughts of Marxist and Maoist socialism with thinkers from the governments of China and

USSR. When Indian cinema and students became vectors of India’s soft authority, they took

along with them the PWM’s message of dissent and speaking against authority.1213 India’s culture

of vada (debate) allowed and even encouraged such irreverence.14 While India’s polity has
11
Lubna Saif, “Pakistan and SEATO”, Pakistan Journal of History and Culture 28, no. 2 (2007).
12
Ramesh Kumar, “Maoist Resurgence and Gandhian Approach: A Perspective,” The Indian Journal of Political
Science 73, no. 4 (2012): 623-632.
13
Vojtech Mastny, “The Soviet Union’s Partnership with India,” Journal of Cold War Studies 12, no. 3 (2010):
50-90.
14
Swami Harshananda, A Concise Encyclopaedia of Hinduism (Bangalore: Vedanta Press, 2019).
 Josyula 6

worked hard to preserve a system of dissent and protest, the same cannot be said for countries

formed from its Partition.15 Pakistan actively censors its cinemas, banning its Oscar nomination,

“Joyland” and Bangladesh (although this paper focuses on the continuous area defined as the

Islamic Republic of Pakistan since Partition) censors its social media platforms with reports of

bloggers hacked to death.16 While it would be difficult to argue that the PWM enabled dissent in

India given its long existing tradition of debate and discussion, one could posit that its

elimination from Pakistan in the aftermath of the Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case quelled all

possibility of Pakistan developing soft power through an inclusive environment for political

alternatives and dissent.

The PWM’s origin and foundational ideas were based on progressivism, anti-imperialism,

and anti-fascism. The PWM gave voice to many in India who did not see romanticism in poverty,

backwardness, and misery. In fact, the “Angare four” were all affluent and polyglots. They were

educated privately in the vernacular and also in English schools, sometimes in England, where

they were exposed to global movements like Communism, Socialism and Liberalism. Thus,

exposure to the West further broadened the horizons and intellectual vision of the PWM’s

founders and they were keen to question the existing social order within their own community

and country. So, the stories in their breakthrough piece Angare have themes of upending existing

social order, sexuality, and religion. Unsurprisingly, the book created a furore and amidst calls

for its proscription by multiple clerics, it was eventually banned.17 In response, Sajjad Zaheer,

now at Oxford and inspired by the Bloomsbury Group of writers including John Maynard

Keynes, organized 30-35 Indians to further his vision of progressivism. India Office Records
15
“Number of registered newspapers and periodicals across India from financial year 2001 to 2021,” Statista,
accessed December 5, 2022.
16
Scott Neuman, “Another Bangladeshi Blogger Hacked To Death For Secular Views,” NPR, August 7, 2015.
17
Rakhshanda Jalil, Liking Progress, Loving Change: A Literary History of the Progressive Writers' Movement in
Urdu (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014).
 Josyula 7

states, “The authors retaliated with protests against the suppression of their work and announced

that they intended to form a League of Progressive Authors… in English and in the various

Indian vernaculars.”18 In 1936, when Zaheer moved back to India, he helped set up what became

known as the Progressive Writers' Movement (PWM) in Calcutta.

The PWM called upon the masses to embrace modernity in the backdrop of global

movements. Bhisham Sahni recalls that it cherished values from the past such as the rich culture

of art and drama, humanism, love for nature but rejected rigid orthodoxy.19 The PWM brought a

new sensibility in depicting contemporary social and political realities like feminism, sexuality,

and civil rights for the masses. They brought about an intellectual break which led to a

qualitative transformation of the creative realm.20 A copy of the PWM’s manifesto drawn up in

London in 1935 is in the records of the India Office in the British Library.21 With the experience

of the Angare ban, the PWM stood first and foremost for liberty of thought and expression,

cultural revolution, and freedom from British rule. Its demand for central coordination showed

proximity to Soviet thought and its demand for a common language indicated an influence of the

reformulation of the Turkish script. Thus, this manifesto seems to have drawn inspiration from

prevailing world movements such as Marxist humanism, the Russian Revolution, Turkish

overthrow of the monarchy and Kemalism, anti-Colonialism, Socialism and modern attitudes

towards progressive movements such as feminism, pacifism, and sexuality.

18
“India Office Records, File 70/36 - Indian Progressive Writers' Association: Reports on Members and Activities in
India,” British Library, October, 1941.
19
Bhisham Sahni, “The Progressive Writers’ Movement,” Indian Literature 29, no. 6 (1986): 178–83.
20
K. N. Panikkar, “Progressive Cultural Movement in India: A Critical Appraisal,” Social Scientist 39, no. 11/12
(2011): 14-25.
21
Rakhshanda Jalil, Liking Progress, Loving Change: A Literary History of the Progressive Writers' Movement in
Urdu (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 415.
 Josyula 8

Given India’s literacy rate of 12% in 1947, the PWM focused on social change, using

theater and street plays as its primary mechanisms.22 PWM members staged plays where the

masses played themselves. This way the masses could utilize their own experience of rent

seeking landlords, hunger, evictions, and lack of money for obligations like weddings, funerals

and taxes.23 They delivered evocative messages about the state of the feudal structure in princely

states and the need to rise and rebel against the establishment.24 At the fourth conference of the

All India Progressive Writers Association, it was decided that the progressives should take part

in mass media to increase reach.25 Consequently, PWM writers and poets such as Kaifi Azmi,

Sahir Ludhianvi, Muztar Khairabadi, Jan Nisar Akhtar, Akhtar ul Iman, Krishan Chander and his

wife Salma Siddiqui joined the rising film industry; many went on to form the Indian People's

Theatre Association (IPTA).

These IPTA/PWM members' writings against Hindu religiosity helped them appeal to a

socio-religio-economically diverse population that wished to move on from the trauma of

religious partition. The members of the IPTA and PWM who joined the film industry were not

limited to script and song writers. They included singers, technicians, sound and light engineers

who could recreate rural environs, actors, directors, and even producers. Thus, the message of a

relatively small group was amplified many times over and they worked together to develop

metaphors, vocabulary, lyrics, language, and visual effects that have set the standard in

Bollywood, creating an archetype for inspiring future generations. The dominance of the Indian

film industry by just a few film-families also ensured that this messaging continued for a few

22
“Literacy in India,” Census Organization of India, accessed December 5, 2022.
23
Talat Ahmed, “Literature and Politics in the Age of Nationalism: The Progressive Writers’ Movement in South
Asia, 1932-1956” (PhD diss., University of London, 2006).
24
Aamir Aijaz, “Dusted after ‘Mass Awakening’: Downfall of Progressive Writers’ Movement in Kashmir,” Free
Press Kashmir, February 12, 2019.
25
Anuradha Roy, Cultural Communism in Bengal 1936-1952 (Primus Books, 2014), 28.
 Josyula 9

decades. The prolific film director of PWM heritage, Khwaja Ahmad Abbas (1914-1987) who

won four Indian National Film awards and the Golden Palm at Cannes, noted in his

autobiography that IPTA artists and film personalities organized a unity march during Partition

riots and helped bridge the divide between Muslim Bombay and Hindu Bombay.26 Abbas went

on to create many films that emphasized the PWM vision of a classless society, often mocking

long held Hindu customs and traditions. The most visible and lasting contribution of such

professionals was their introduction and development of a non-sectarian community of film

professionals who emphasized both on and off movie sets the need for progressive ideas that rose

above religion. This worked as a salve on a country which had been cruelly ripped apart and

traumatized by communal riots. The newly divided country was vastly Hindu and seemed weary

of the past. The experienced PWM filmmakers used recognizable metaphors like female deities,

religious icons, historical heroes and heroines who overcame penury to convey their progressive

messages such as female literacy, poverty eradication and social cohesion.

PWM integrated with student-led movements for change in different Indian state-funded

universities. There was a large influence of British socialism on young Indians who went to

study at British universities prior to 1947. Even as early as 1935, immediately upon his return to

India, Zaheer met with vice chancellors, academics, and senior professors at Indian Universities

to set up academies to develop research and literary body of work as a custodian of socialist

realism.27 Amarnath Jha, Vice Chancellor of Allahabad University and Abdul Alim, Vice

Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University invited him to work with the languages and social

sciences faculty. In February 1935, a gathering of Urdu writers was convened by Dr. Tara Chand,

26
Khwaja A. Abbas, I am not an Island: An Experiment in Autobiography (New Delhi: Vikash Publishing House,
1977), 128-129.
27
Hafeez Malik, “The Marxist Literary Movement in India and Pakistan,” Journal of Asian Studies 26, no. 4 (1967):
649.
 Josyula 10

in his capacity as Secretary of the Hindustani Akademi where academics signed up to defend the

cause of Angare, attempting to further the cause of progressivism.28 The All-India Progressive

Writers’ Association’s constitution (drafted by Sajjad Zaheer, Mahmuduzzafar, and Abdul Alim)

urged that authorities of Indian universities allow their students freedom to develop political

organizations and journals.29 Once the country became a Republic, Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first

Prime Minister hailed schools, colleges, dams, and factories as the “temples of modern India.”30

This term was reiterated by Nehru often to imply that his Government’s focus was on embracing

modernity, developing a scientific temperament, and a republic built on debate and public

discourse. The genesis for this thought may be traced to the 1930s when there was a large

influence of British socialism on young Indians including Nehru himself who studied at British

institutions. It was joked that “at every meeting of the Indian cabinet in the 1950s there was an

’empty chair reserved for the ghost of Professor Harold Laski.’”31 Professor Laski, a chairman of

the British Labour Party, taught political science during his time at London School of Economics

to many future Asian and African leaders. Nehru’s daughter and successor, Indira Gandhi, took

this vision further as she tightened the state’s grip on planning and control through bureaucracy

dubbed as Nehruvian socialism; after all, it was state-funded universities themselves that

supplied the bureaucrats.32

PWM did not have the same experience on the other side of the border as Pakistan shut

down the organization and its ideas of Islamic socialism in the wake of the Rawalpindi

28
Talat Ahmed, “Literature and Politics in the Age of Nationalism: The Progressive Writers’ Movement in South
Asia, 1932-1956” (PhD diss., University of London, 2006).
29
Rakhshanda Jalil, Liking Progress, Loving Change: A Literary History of the Progressive Writers' Movement in
Urdu (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014).
30
“Temples of Modern India,” The Financial Express, Financial Express, accessed December 11, 2022.
31
Paroj Banerjee, “‘The LSE is from everywhere and not from somewhere’: Professor Mike Cox on diversity at
LSE,” London School of Economics, May 3, 2017.
32
Bidyut Sarkar, P.N.Haksar: Our Times and The Man - Writings on the Occasion of his 75th Birthday (Delhi:
Allied Publishers, 1989), 44.
 Josyula 11

Conspiracy Case, expelling its PWM leaders to India and elsewhere. Soon after Partition, many

of the PWM members including Faiz and Zaheer moved with their co-religionists to the newly

formed Islamic Republic. In retrospect, the movement in Pakistan seemed doomed from the start.

First, Pakistani PWM leaders had to address and quell suspicions that they were Communist

Party of India agents operating based on instructions of Indian intelligence. Furthermore, Zaheer

was not skilled in building an organization ground up and local leaders like Eric Cyprian and

Mirza Ibrahim’s distrust only worsened matters.33 The last straw came when they were

implicated in the Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case. Major General Akbar Khan had fought in the

Jammu and Kashmir War of 1948 and felt let down by his country’s leadership while the

leadership saw him as pro-Nasser (the Arab Nationalist and staunch anti-American leader of the

Arab Republic of Egypt). With little trust between him and Pakistan Army top brass, Pakistani

authorities fabricated a story that Faiz invited Zaheer to a cocktail party in Rawalpindi to meet

Maj. Gen. Akbar Khan during which Zaheer was tasked to draft plans to overthrow the

Government.34 In the wake of the Conspiracy’s announcement, Pakistan took severe measures to

shut down the PWM and its ideas of Islamic socialism. The entire leadership of the CPP, its

central committee, many party workers, ordinary trade union activists, student leaders, and even

suspected sympathizers were arrested and tried under the Security of Pakistan Act 1952. 35 The

police publicized scandalous information such as liquor expenses of CPP leaders. 36 Naturally,

this destroyed the reputation of the CPP in a largely Islamic country where alcohol is frowned

upon. In July 1954, the CPP was banned, with the ban not lifted until August 1972. But even in

33
Talat Ahmed, “Literature and Politics in the Age of Nationalism: The Progressive Writers’ Movement in South
Asia, 1932-1956” (PhD diss., University of London, 2006).
34
Muhammad Hamza, “The Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case: Myth or Reality – An Analysis,” Pakistan Perspectives
11, no. 1 (2006).
35
Hasan Zaheer, The times and trial of the Rawalpindi conspiracy 1951: the first coup attempt in Pakistan (Karachi:
Oxford University Press, 1998).
36
Muhammad Hamza, “The Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case: Myth or Reality – An Analysis,” Pakistan Perspectives
11, no. 1 (2006).
 Josyula 12

the short period after its formation when the party was formally able to operate legally, the

authorities kept it under constant police control and subjected it to a series of repressions. This,

together with the introduction of reformism in the working-class movement, created enormous

difficulties for communists and restricted the CPP’s influence among the proletarian strata.37

Trouble mounted for the accused conspirators as they were deemed as Leftists in a country that

was keen on keeping its place in the American camp during the Cold War. Pakistan’s pro-West

leadership offered unconditional support to the proposed organization, SEATO, leaving no space

for Islamic Socialism.38

Naturally, CPP members were in a state of panic after its leaders were arrested, fearing

loss of their own freedom. They called for dissolution, disowned Communism, and pinned the

blame on Zaheer.39 This was the nail in the coffin for the Pakistani PWM. Pakistan Government

rules were formulated to prevent any participation of Government employees in the Pakistan

Progreesive Writers’ Association. When a session of the Pakistan Progressive Writers’

Association was finally announced in Lahore, armed goons were hired to disturb the

proceedings, Soviet invitees were stopped and their books and pamphlets seized, and mosques

passed resolutions condemning communist movements.40 On 28 April 1951, the Government

issued a Gazette notification that gave itself sweeping repressive powers - to try the case in

secrecy. Munib-ur Rahman, secretary of South-East Asia Committee drafted an appeal and

37
Muhammad Hamza, “The Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case: Myth or Reality – An Analysis,” Pakistan Perspectives
11, no. 1 (2006).
38
Lubna Saif, “Pakistan and SEATO”, Pakistan Journal of History and Culture 28, no. 2 (2007).
39
Muhammad Hamza, “The Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case: Myth or Reality – An Analysis,” Pakistan Perspectives
11, no. 1 (2006).
40
Talat Ahmed, “Literature and Politics in the Age of Nationalism: The Progressive Writers’ Movement in South
Asia, 1932-1956” (PhD diss., University of London, 2006).
 Josyula 13

foretold the future of the judicial process in Pakistan: that totalitarian Governments could seize

power on fictitious charges, withhold evidence, and conduct trials in secret courts.41

When they were released in 1956, the PWM leaders in Pakistan were disgraced and

dismissed from service. Faiz and Zaheer moved back to India and they reunited with their former

colleagues who were now leading lights in the movie industry in India. Writers like Ismat

Chugtai and Kaifi Azmi returned to their irreverent roles like they had never left and held their

own in the company of illustrious writers. Over time, these members re-entered the Indian film

industry showcasing upwardly mobile aspirational themes and scripts questioning the “olds”

such as the social order, customs, and Hinduism, while using Indic-drama techniques. Many

PWM members continued teaching at state-funded universities and art institutions that received

generous Government funding and were also permitted to explore thoughts of Marxist and

Maoist socialism with Chinese and Soviet thinkers, both of which found resonance in Indian

society, at least until the fall of the Berlin Wall.42

Meanwhile, India became a Constitutional Republic in 1950 and gave its citizens

sweeping fundamental rights including freedom of speech that has been jealously guarded by the

Courts and citizens even when attacked.43 This engendered the development of a robust system

of check and balances with dissent and protest channels widened by its large and noisy press.44 In

41
Munib-ur Rahman, The Pakistan Trial: A Call for an Open and Fair Trial in the Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case
(1951).
42
Rakhshanda Jalil, Liking Progress, Loving Change: A Literary History of the Progressive Writers' Movement in
Urdu (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014).
43
Tripurdaman Singh, Sixteen Stormy Days: The Story of the First Amendment of the Constitution of India (New
Delhi: Penguin Random House, 2020).
44
“Number of registered newspapers and periodicals across India from financial year 2001 to 2021,” Statista,
accessed December 5, 2022.
 Josyula 14

fact, Imperial laws such as the Dramatic Performances Act (1876) that suppressed criticism and

polemical views of public figures have been effectively declared void by Indian Courts.45

The impunity with which the Pakistani civil and military elite acted in the backdrop of

the Rawalpindi Conspiracy case shows the importance of having debate and dissent while

developing institutions. The Rawalpindi conspirators were charged based on the flimsiest of

evidence and behind closed doors: we may never know the courtroom’s actual proceedings.

Furthermore, the case set a template for future power grabs by the Army. Unlike armies that

primarily concern themselves with external security challenges, the Pakistan Army has

developed a doctrine under which it is involved in managing domestic affairs of the state.46 The

genesis for this inherent linkage between the internal and external security frameworks is the

Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case. The overdeveloped nature of the coercive power structure, namely

the Army, has led to stultifying other organs that could apply necessary checks and balances,

namely, the press, civil society, legislature, and executive.47 Rimmel Mohydin, a South Asia

campaigner with Amnesty International, told DW that the media in Pakistan is facing a

"structural attack" by authorities; "Dissent is being consistently treated like a crime."48

Using Nye's definition of soft power as a type of power stemming from the domain of

political values and cultural patterns, India only recently started to learn how to employ it for

leveraging its culture, political values, and foreign policy for national objectives.4950 While the

world has always been attracted to India for purposes of trade, religious seeking, and fleeing

religious persecution, newer vectors of soft power have been films, education, IT, space, music,

45
R. Ramanujam, Report of the Committee to Identify the Central Acts which are Not Relevant or No Longer Needed
or Require Repeal/Re-enactment in the Present Socio-economic Context (New Delhi: Prime Minister's Office, 2014).
46
Christine Fair, Fighting to the End: The Pakistan Army's Way of War (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014).
47
Anita Weiss, Power and Civil Society in Pakistan (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2001).
48
Haroon Janjua, “Pakistan's media crackdown leaves journalists vulnerable,” DW, November 9, 2021.
49
Joseph S. Nye, Soft Power: The Means To Success In World Politics (London: Public Affairs, 2009).
50
Dhruva Jaishankar, “India rising: Soft power and the world’s largest democracy,” accessed December 11, 2022.
 Josyula 15

yoga, and even the diaspora. As the vectors take along with them the culture holistically rather

than piecemeal, they showcase their tolerance for dissent and speaking against authority.5152

On the other hand, Pakistan has struggled to develop soft power vectors that align with

its national objectives. The Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case demonstrates the role of an opposition

and dissent mechanisms to determine if the system and laws of the country are enabling the best

environment for the growth and development of citizens’ aspirations. Organizations like the

PWM, for all their faults, enabled building methods for moral suasion, building bridges, and

peaceful public demonstrations. Today, the Pakistani PWM is no more and there is little

opposition to the powerful Army. Since the Army has controlled the state directly or indirectly

for most of Pakistan’s 75 year history, it is well positioned to pursue its own institutional ends.

This has led to the Army maximizing its own interests, only occasionally adjusting the calculus

to ensure it does not destroy the state, and resulting in a scenario where the state remains forever

subservient to the Army’s interests. Such a culture has come at an enormous cost to a country

that has limited savings and resources available for development and for private enterprise53.

51
Ramesh Kumar, “Maoist Resurgence and Gandhian Approach: A Perspective,” The Indian Journal of Political
Science 73, no. 4 (2012): 623-632.
52
Vojtech Mastny, “The Soviet Union’s Partnership with India,” Journal of Cold War Studies 12, no. 3 (2010):
50-90.
53
Ayesha Siddiqa-Agha, Military Inc: Inside Pakistan's Military Economy (London: Pluto Press, 2017).
 Josyula 16

Bibliography

Ali Ahmed and N.M. Rashed, “The Progressive Writers’ Movement in its Historical Perspective,” Journal of South
Asian Literature 13, no. 1/4 (1977): 91–97.

Aamir Aijaz, “Dusted after ‘Mass Awakening’: Downfall of Progressive Writers’ Movement in Kashmir,” Free
Press Kashmir, February 12, 2019.

Anita Weiss, Power and Civil Society in Pakistan (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2001).

Anuradha Roy, Cultural Communism in Bengal 1936-1952 (Primus Books, 2014), 28.

Ayesha Siddiqa-Agha, Military Inc: Inside Pakistan's Military Economy (London: Pluto Press, 2017).

Bhisham Sahni, “The Progressive Writers’ Movement,” Indian Literature 29, no. 6 (1986): 178–83

Bidyut Sarkar, P.N.Haksar: Our Times and The Man - Writings on the Occasion of his 75th Birthday (Delhi: Allied
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